The present invention is directed toward the field of door chimes. In particular, a door chime system that uses a high quality recorded sound to indicate the activation of a door chime button is disclosed. The invention provides the distinct advantage over the prior art of playing a CD quality recorded musical doorbell indication sound instead of an artificial sound produced by an electronic music synthesizer chip.
The invention may be incorporated into any wireless door chime. U.S. Pat. No. 5,365,214, assigned to Dimango and hereby incorporated by reference, for example, discloses a door chime having multiple detectors which transmit radio frequency ("RF") signals to a common receiver upon the depression of doorbell buttons. Each detectors is associated with a specific doorbell button and includes means for allowing manual selection of a song or melody to be played by the receiver upon the receiver's receipt of the RF signal from the detector. The system allows different audible indications to be played in response to the depression of the doorbell button associated with a particular detector. As a result, a user can program each detector, such as a front doorbell detector and a back door detector, to signal, through its RF signal, the receiver to play a distinct audible indication whenever a specific doorbell button is pressed so that a user can determine from the audible indication played by the receiver which doorbell button was pressed.
A particular shortcoming of many of the wireless door chime systems, such as the system described above, is the sound quality of the audible indication. Typical door chime systems produce a poor quality sound. Therefore, there remains a need in this art for a method of creating a high sound quality signal for use with door chime systems. There remain a more particular need for a method storing a CD quality sound into a door chime system. There also remains a need for a door chime system capable of playing a CD quality sound.